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The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

by Thomas Ligotti, Ray Brassier (Foreword)

4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 · rating details · 203 ratings · 29 reviews

"The Conspiracy against the Human Race sets out what is perhaps the most sustained challenge yet to the intellectual blackmail that would oblige us to be eternally grateful for a 'gift' we never invited."
--From the Foreword by Ray Brassier

"The Conspiracy against the Human Race is renowned horror writer Thomas Ligotti's first work of nonfiction. Through impressively wide-ra...more

Hardcover, 240 pages

Published June 25th 2010 by Hippocampus Press

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May 12, 2011 Bill Kerwin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: weird-fiction

This is an impressionistic survey by weird fiction writer Ligotti of the bleakest practitioners of modern philosophy, the guys who make Cioran look like a stand-up comic and Schopenhauer and Camus like irresponsible pollyannas.

If you've ever wondered whether we are nothing but cosmic puppets and whether human consciousness is but an illusion, if you have ever suspected we are mere bags of skin crammed full of sequential sensations imagining themselves to be human, if you have ever guessed that t...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ligotti is a pessimist—and not some namby-pamby, equivocating, of course it will rain every day of my vacation! kind of doubting dude: Ligotti's pessimism is old school, pure, richly endowed with the ichor of nullity. Ligotti believes, firmly and avowedly, that, as the human race would have been better off never having come into existence in the first place, the most beneficial and sensible outcome for our species, as constituted at this particular point in the space/time continuum, would be to...more

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Chris Hi Dotheherp—is that a portmanteau, or a Lovecraftian handle? Thanks for your kind words and the encouraging sentiment behind them.

I've said this befo...more
updated 21 feb. 21:20

Dotheherp Well, nope.. "Do The Herp".. Just a random phrase, unfortunately. Y'know, "herp derp".. lol

I'll give Donaldson a peek.. Honestly, we share the same ex...more
27 feb. 21:49

Oct 31, 2012 David Agranoff rated it 2 of 5 stars

OK, so I am aware that Liggoti is a genius and one of the most respected horror writers of the past couple decades. Who else alive gets compared to Poe and Lovecraft besides him and maybe T.E.D. Klien. I might lose some street cred for this review, because even though I am a complete misanthrope and a general fan of Liggotti's fiction...I just didn't enjoy this book.

These are mostly depressing pieces about how meaningless human life is. That sounds good to me. It is also topped off by an essay a...more

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Aug 24, 2010 Krapp rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: the brave

Shelves: horror, nonfiction, mandatory-reading, philosophy, dark

Thomas Ligotti is currently the best writer of English prose. Cormac McCarthy was better till the detestable Border Trilogy, and maybe The Road is up there with his best. Until McCarthy tops The Road, however, the honor goes to Thomas Ligotti. It doesn't matter at all you've never heard of him: I believe he prefers it that way.

I do not agree with the ... what? ... the anti-metaphysics of this, Ligotti's first nonfiction book. The fact I don't agree does not diminish the dark grandeur of this boo...more Thomas Ligotti is currently the best writer of English prose. Cormac McCarthy was better till the detestable Border Trilogy, and maybe The Road is up there with his best. Until McCarthy tops The Road, however, the honor goes to Thomas Ligotti. It doesn't matter at all you've never heard of him: I believe he prefers it that way.

I do not agree with the ... what? ... the anti-metaphysics of this, Ligotti's first nonfiction book. The fact I don't agree does not diminish the dark grandeur of this book on tittle or jot. When I say "grandeur" and "best writer of English prose" don't think that The Conspiracy Against the Human Race comes off as high-brow. This is no absurd sophisticate such as you find in the pages of New Yorker magazine and who bloat today's university libraries with verbal constipation. This is a plain man whose erudition is as unobtrusive as it is deep. His argumentation is without flaw, given his initial premises, the givens and axioms of his world. He happens to have the audacity to believe that "everything is not all right" as he dryly put its it, and sets out to prove it. That is no innocuous phrase: it's pure poison. Unless you have a lot of heavy-duty lived experience under your belt that says he's wrong--felt experience lived within some traditional faith, or some other kind of non-ordinary yet still very real experience--you'll wind up dismissing The Conspiracy Against the Human Race only you'll do so without a leg to stand on: you'll do this, else you'll join him in the ranks of Nihilists (Ligotti uses the term Pessimists) out of simple honesty. Ligotti himself would regard you (as he would me) as wishful thinkers. I can only counter that hypothetical argument of his by saying nobody knows anything but what they've experienced, even if it's all in their heads--whether it was read in a book or an original product of precise ratiocination or something perceived as an external phenomenon, like a rock, but perhaps not something explicable by a devotee of Science and Reason. In the end, for all it's wonders The Conspiracy Against the Human Race is the product of one who happens to be a True Believer in those things: because that's all he knows. He doesn't think Science and Reason will ever "save" anybody in any way: this book uses Reason to convince you of the lack of Reason in all things, including your life and the lives of those you love.

It needs to be said that that isn't the eponymous Conspiracy Against the Human Race. The Conspiracy is consciousness itself: by our natures we are unnatural, we are puppets who have come to life, manikins who possess consciousness, who think we're more than puppets or manikins, but we are emphatically not more. We are the Conspirators against ourselves, Ligotti argues (read his book, try to prove him wrong with argumentation) because we are the meaningless bearers of meaningless consciousness, meaning-making machines in a universe that is entirely nonsensical and without meaning. I can't do the man or his thought justice.

The sheer experience of reading Ligotti borders on the non-ordinary. It is a harrowing kind of initiation: will you survive? It's like he's some post-human creature who manages to live (not comfortably but still alive) in a world without any hint of any kind of hope or comfort. That's he's an ordinary man with an ordinary job (admittedly one that requires a lot of technical expertise and education) makes his accomplishment all the more amazing.

If you're up to the task, read this book. It's not hard to read. It still may kill you (or kill your illusions and delusions and comfort) if you dare to hear the man who wrote it and to understand his thoughts.(less)

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Oct 16, 2011 knig rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: blancmange-of-ideas

Consider the following postulation: ‘Schopenhauer concurs that hypothesizing a thing-in-itself as the cause of our sensations amounts to a constitutive application and projection of the concept of causality beyond its legitimate scope, for the concept of causality only supplies knowledge when it is applied within the field of possible experience’. Now, imagine this psycho-babble oops, sorry, this aesthetic perception as a mode of transcendence, spread over 500 pages, and try reading it through....more Consider the following postulation: ‘Schopenhauer concurs that hypothesizing a thing-in-itself as the cause of our sensations amounts to a constitutive application and projection of the concept of causality beyond its legitimate scope, for the concept of causality only supplies knowledge when it is applied within the field of possible experience’. Now, imagine this psycho-babble oops, sorry, this aesthetic perception as a mode of transcendence, spread over 500 pages, and try reading it through. Or, pick up Ligotti’s Conspiracy where Schopenhauer’s Will-to-live is beautifully detailed in accessible terms and contextually clarified for those of us who are destined to feed off the fringes of philosophy, mostly from the Dummy editions.

Ligotti has, in essence, compiled a huge reading list of notable names in the field of Pessimism vs. Optimism philosophical debate, and diligently extracts the leitmotif and central premise of said philosopher/scientists. The end result is a smorgasbord offering of essential concepts and theories which underpin the rendering of existence. Ligotti particularly appeals as he is careful not to (overtly anyway) weigh in definitively on either side of the argument.

Inevitably with a compilation such as this, some theories will seem familiar, others are entirely novel and many are, of course, controversial. Below are some of the ideas that stirred up my imagination.

I had not previously been aware of Mainlander’s ‘Philosophy of Redemption’ (but my excuse is that it has never been translated into English), however his beautiful premise that the Big Bang is actually God suiciding himself, as He could not bear his own existence, and that in seeking to nullify himself, god’s death (the big bang) brought about ‘life’. This must be the most flawlessly lyrical and novel interpretation of our ‘beginning’ that I know. Zapffe, whom I was not acquainted with before, posits that we deliberately ‘limit’ our consciousness in order to cope with the terror and dread of the unknown, as well as the knowledge that our existence is futile. This makes perfect sense although I would say our self-limiting exercises are in no way a conscious activity at all. We do not, I think, knowingly impose self limits: this is done on a sub level which is probably informed by more mundane factors such as biological and physical capacity of the brain to constantly keep processing new information. If I were to consciously question and second guess every move I make during the day I’d never get even out of bed.

And so, the debate whether life is worth living rages on. Ligotti acknowledges that most people by default find life enjoyable and good and worth living, because believing otherwise would lead to madness. How disappointing then his chapter on Buddhism: which he equates with the pessimism. 130 million people have accepted that suffering is a way of life, but in the West our home grown pessimists have no such following. Why is that, he asks? Well, for goodness sakes, man. On yer bike, as the going says, and get ye to southern India, China and Sri Lanka: I can recommend some good hotels. Whilst I was there it became evident to me that regardless what Buddhist THEORY may postulate, the population on the ground has most certainly not accepted suffering as a way of life at all. Whilst they are good to repeat some of the tenets as mantra, this is more an affirmation of knowing rather than accepting. I found a complete dichotomy between doing and saying on the ground. Which would seem to reaffirm Zapffe (and Ligotti’s ) premise that otherwise would be following the road to madness.

At a certain point it becomes apparent, that non partisan as he tries to be, Ligotti does not believe it is possible to assume that Sisyphus (of The myth of Sisyphus by Camus) was ultimately happy, meaning that we can’t assume a view of life that can content us with the tragedy, nightmare and meaninglessness of human existence. This thought gave me pause, but in the end I must reject it. As an aside, it is quite possible not to have to assume any such view at all, if you’re not aware of the nightmare of your life. I was exposed to unimaginable deprivation and horror in a village in Malaysia, but the inhabitants, isolated from the world, had no basis for comparison and thus did not assume their life was horrific. Not knowing anything else, they took their lot in stride and imagined that this is how it was for all and sundry, not a fate to lament but just the status quo. And even when faced with the futility of our existence, we still find a way to adjust, accept, and assume happiness: this even Ligotti acknowledges later in his book. Perhaps because in the absence of underlying psychological issues, the human mind simply isn’t geared (biologically)for prolonged periods of depression.

Much is made of the human interpretation and obsession with horror, and how this may translate into creating ‘an ominous state of affairs’ in literature which alludes to underlying horror. I’m not sure that an ominous state of affairs is a philosophically valid term. In as much as a state of affairs can only be a neutral state onto which we project our subjective interpretations, it would not necessarily be ominous to one and all. What I believe to be the underlying issue here is the concept of a differentiating factor: where a state of affairs appears to deviate from conventional norm, this very difference: whether ominous or not, is enough to provoke consternation. Not necessarily because, as Ligotti stipulates, that without the consciousness of death there would never have been a supernatural horror story written, but because fear of the unknown (and not just death) is a coping mechanism on a subconscious level which activates instinctually to protect us from danger. Ligotti claims vampires and zombis as carriers, nay embodiments of supernatural horror. Puppets who appropriate human characteristics are also singled out as ‘horrorful’. All tied in supposedly with our consciousness of death. However, a film such as ‘Planet of the Apes’ embodies no less ‘supernatural’ horror (in the classic definition of the latter), ; its ending does not allude to imminent death but the horror is very real: the horror of having to accept the complete and final loss of humanity. The horror of the unknown.

This book will have something for everyone.

(less)

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Apr 02, 2013 Alexander rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Tony Robbins

Recommended to Alexander by: Ryan

Shelves: bibliophagy, cognitive-noir, leviathan, psy-ops, zeitgeist

Mr. Ligotti has generously compiled his unexpurgated liner-notes to Titannica’s maxi-single “Try Suicide” and “Try Again (Adam’s Song)” in The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, a trade paper edition released on the Hippocampus imprint. (I’ve customized my own copy with an embedded sound-chip that plays S & G’s 59th Street Bridge Song each time I turn the page.)

So throw away those useless orange bottles of Paxil and Lexapro and let Happy Tom’s magic rainbow swirl of antihumanist glee explode...more

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Sep 30, 2010 Kathy rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you are happy-go-lucky, optimistic, and think that life is a wonderful thing & happy to pop out human offspring because it makes you smile to think of continuing human life, then this is NOT the book for you. If, however, you see human life as a cruel joke that we know the fatal punch line to, then read & feel like slightly less of a freak, knowing that the genius literary mind of Thomas Ligotti knows your pain as well. He can't do anything about it, of course, but he makes a fine cas...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Jamie Dunbaugh rated it 4 of 5 stars

A vindicating read for those plagued with suspicions of the optimistic cultural narrative. However, it's useless for those looking for an answer, as it claim we are MALIGNANTLY USELESS. I don't see why the author must yell that out so frequently. He claims there's no end for any utility to derive from. I've been in the gutter of despair for long enough, and while I appreciate this work's originality and celebration of a beloved philosopher (Zapffe), I've become convinced that there is measurable...more

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Mar 01, 2012 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ligotti's thoughts on human life are a natural extension of Lovecraft's cosmicism, so this book will probably be either boring or upsetting to most people. That aside, his writing is as clear as ever, and (although it occurs rarely in this piece) he retains the ability of all good horror writers to release the fear and discomfort established over several paragraphs in a single sentence ((view spoiler) is especially chilling).

My...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

It is interesting to read things which go beyond even my somewhat legendary philosophical pessimism, as it to challenge myself into how low can you go?'. Well there arent many points lower than this book and despite a somewhat clunky opening to me it was a great read. I dont agree with everything in it as I have a child like desire to learn more about the world through science and nature stemming from curiosity alone, but the general prognosis of the human condition I was in full agreeance with....more

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Dec 11, 2012 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

While this book is certainly pessimistic, I admit to laughing out loud at how Ligotti can whip a line! "It is better to kill time than kill yourself" is just one of many gems I plan to bust out the next time someone is whining to be about how bad their life is. On a serious note, there are some frighteningly meaningful points to be made here about how conciousness is a disease. Ligotti points put how most people don't really want to hear this kind of stuff, so I won't be adding this to anyone's...more

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Aug 12, 2010 Jeremy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy, buddhism, psychology

A remarkable if sometimes exasperating work of philosophy. Let me begin by saying that I agree with essentially all of the core assumptions of this book. As a Buddhist practitioner, I was especially moved by his treatment of suffering and of the Buddhist tradition, which I feel is mostly very perceptive, even if far from the platitudes of contemporary Buddhism. Further, the book spoke very directly to the sense of profundity I have occasionally experienced in the horror genre (HP Lovecraft and L...more A remarkable if sometimes exasperating work of philosophy. Let me begin by saying that I agree with essentially all of the core assumptions of this book. As a Buddhist practitioner, I was especially moved by his treatment of suffering and of the Buddhist tradition, which I feel is mostly very perceptive, even if far from the platitudes of contemporary Buddhism. Further, the book spoke very directly to the sense of profundity I have occasionally experienced in the horror genre (HP Lovecraft and Ligotti's own fiction come to mind), particularly in it's exploration of the uncanny, which I have often felt is a much overlooked mind state in the Buddhist tradition.

I do not disagree with the facts of life as Mr. Ligotti has posed them. Samsara (the Buddhist name for the world) is indeed a thin and unsatisfactory veneer spread over a canyon filled with bones. However, I simply do not agree with the implications he has drawn from them. If we abandon all illusions, why die? Why would you want to die? It seems to me there is a fear lingering here, an attachment, a clinging to the negative space created by the removal of illusions.

Ligotti seems to appreciate that while he has made short work of so many of the commonplaces of life and the illusions of religion, Buddhism requires a different tack. His argument against the Buddhist conception of emptiness comes down to 1) most of the Buddhist tradition is consolation or at worst sort of a confidence game, 2) the realization of emptiness (enlightenment) is exceptionally rare and 3) the realization of emptiness is not directly produced, in a causal sense, by the practices of Buddhism. I disagree with none of the ideas, but fail to see how they constitute a refutation of the Buddhist understanding of and path towards emptiness. Ultimately, at the risk of being reductionist, my experience of the book is that it's many deep and dark insights are afflicted by a fearful and subtle attachment to negativity that drives it from unblinking realism to an overstated pessimism.

Altogether, a haunting, brilliant and brave book. If it is not perfect, it is still more true than almost everything else. I will do doubt return to it again and again.(less)

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May 13, 2013 Bernardo rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race is the definitive book on pessimism. Drawing from Arthur Schopenhauer, Emil Cioran, David Benatar, Peter Wessel Zapffe and others, Thomas Ligotti explores the nature of reality and the human condition. Ligotti is well-known for his horror stories with supernatural themes, here he shows what is truly horrific: self-awareness and conscious existence. He also analyses some of our most fantastic illusions such as the illusion of free will and the illusion of the...more

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Mar 23, 2013 R S rated it 4 of 5 stars

Worth reading. An excellent place to find information about like minded philosophers (Zapffe, Schopenhauer, etc.)

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Aug 14, 2011 Tone rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: beliefs

A good case for why I'm a Buddhist instead of an atheist. We believe what we want to believe. I couldn't process all the baggage that came with the Christianity that I was raised with but I also couldn't cope with the purposelessness that comes with atheism.

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Aug 13, 2012 Alex rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this under a blazing sun on vacation with my family. That is probably the wrong setting to read a work arguing for willing extinction of the human race. Whoops.

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Aug 08, 2011 Carlos rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011

Ligotti's first story in his first collection is "The Frolic," features a serial killer who seems to have supernatural abilities. Yet, in contrast to most psychopaths, real-world and fictional, he has no sense of grandiosity but an awareness of his own insignificance. Conspiracy reminds me of that story, in that Ligotti sets out to slay every illusion that one might hold about life, about mankind, about the universe, yet seems to realize the futility of this mission. A fascinating work of disill...more

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Jul 17, 2010 Nicole Cushing rated it 5 of 5 stars

Darkest book I've ever read; and perhaps the most convincing. Highly recommended for all readers, except those with sanity or self-delusions left to lose.

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Nov 02, 2012 Harry Rice rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book by the famous author of horror tale presents his philosophy. It forces you to think and question premises that probably underlie everything that you believe about your life. If you have the courage to stick with it, it may change your life and offer you a freedom you can find nowhere else,

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May 12, 2013 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars

The world and life are MALIGNANTLY USELESS

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Aug 23, 2011 Jonathan Urquhart rated it 5 of 5 stars

A cogent synthesis of everything I have thought about the world for a very long time.

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Mar 22, 2013 Shaun rated it 4 of 5 stars

yes. very much so.

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May 12, 2013 Leon Sandler rated it 5 of 5 stars

A terrifying work of "ontological horror"--the Nightmare of Being, the ultimate horror story.
Thomas Ligotti has rendered all other living authors in the genre obsolete

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Oct 07, 2010 Waffles rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm giving this one 4 stars not because I "really liked it". I admit that if someone other than Thomas Ligotti wrote this I probably wouldn't have finished it.

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Oct 24, 2012 Stoic rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: philosophy, horror, essentials

Second time through-- still brilliant.

Procreation is capital punishment. In creating a life, you are complicit in a death.

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Nov 10, 2012 Mark Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Uncompromising and terrifying--and probably accurate. Anyone interested in why reality is creepy should read it.

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Jan 23, 2011 Michael added it

http://www.gorelets.com/blog/not-dead...

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Dec 12, 2012 Rufus rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: depressing, horror, grotesque, gothic, kinda-boring, intellectual-history, radical-literature, psychology, tasty, weird-psychology

stark, dark, bleak, hopeless, depressing

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Aug 23, 2010 Cameron is currently reading it

Bleak and sober.

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May 22, 2013 Shumwayindustries rated it 5 of 5 stars

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“This is the great lesson the depressive learns: Nothing in the world is inherently compelling. Whatever may be really “out there” cannot project itself as an affective experience. It is all a vacuous affair with only a chemical prestige. Nothing is either good or bad, desirable or undesirable, or anything else except that it is made so by laboratories inside us producing the emotions on which we live. And to live on our emotions is to live arbitrarily, inaccurately—imparting meaning to what has none of its own. Yet what other way is there to live? Without the ever-clanking machinery of emotion, everything would come to a standstill. There would be nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to be, and no one to know. The alternatives are clear: to live falsely as pawns of affect, or to live factually as depressives, or as individuals who know what is known to the depressive. How advantageous that we are not coerced into choosing one or the other, neither choice being excellent. One look at human existence is proof enough that our species will not be released from the stranglehold of emotionalism that anchors it to hallucinations. That may be no way to live, but to opt for depression would be to opt out of existence as we consciously know it.” — 24 people liked it

“For the rest of the earth’s organisms, existence is relatively uncomplicated. Their lives are about three things: survival, reproduction, death—and nothing else. But we know too much to content ourselves with surviving, reproducing, dying—and nothing else. We know we are alive and know we will die. We also know we will suffer during our lives before suffering—slowly or quickly—as we draw near to death. This is the knowledge we “enjoy” as the most intelligent organisms to gush from the womb of nature. And being so, we feel shortchanged if there is nothing else for us than to survive, reproduce, and die. We want there to be more to it than that, or to think there is. This is the tragedy: Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are—hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones.” — 14 people liked it

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